LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Pick: Popular or qualified

The runoff in the 1st District poses an all-too-familiar situation in politics. I believe the election is between the less-qualified candidate from the more populous area against the more qualified from the less populous area.

Not to take anything away from Scott Ellington, but his breadth of experience appears to be limited to that of prosecuting attorney, one who tries people he believes are guilty of a crime. This entails focusing on one option only at a time, the suspected guilt of the accused, leaving limited opportunity to consider other alternatives. Plea bargaining is an option, perhaps when the case is weak or something is wanted in exchange.

A prosecuting attorney operates in a deep comfort zone, surrounded by law. Now try getting into a zone of uncertainty, where lawmakers define the problem, weigh options and try to accomplish a solution that is palatable to the American people. It requires a different set of skills.

Those skills are possessed by state Rep. Clark Hall, in my opinion. I have watched him operate at the state legislative level. I found it refreshing that he always seemed to take a position on issues that he believed was right regardless of criticism. His depth of understanding of the varied legislative committees and how they fit together to complement each other is crucial and a great asset to have at the national level.

Voters are challenged to place in the House the most qualified, not necessarily the most popular.

DOUG EATON

Sherwood

Raising the white flag

Hiram B. Cooper of Bella Vista in his most recent letter to the editor once again accuses me of denying my and the Democratic Party’s responsibility for “50 million-plus premeditated killings. . . through abortion, enslavement of minorities . . . and the destruction of Christianity.”

Again, wow!

Cooper suggests that I read a book by Cleon Skousen, a name I remember from years ago. So I looked him up. It seems that Skousen accused President Dwight Eisenhower of being a Communist, and has a nearly 2,000-page FBI file in which one memo characterizes him as money mad and an unprincipled racketeer.

Finally, Cooper goes on to write that he is just a sinner saved by grace.

How can anyone counter assertions like these? It’s like a naval battle between the dinky 5-inch popguns on a Sumner class destroyer, like the one I served aboard in the 1950s, against the 18-inchers aboard the Japanese battleship Yamato.

So I surrender. No more letters in answer to Cooper. I am outgunned by Skousen, the man who changed Glenn Beck’s life, and by Cooper’s moral rectitude.

To alter a quote from someone whom Cooper must admire, you won’t have me to kick around anymore.

JON ZIMMER

Fayetteville

Cold water on theory

A point of clarification: There were no trout in those Arkansas streams before the dams. There were bass and catfish, the same fish that remain in the lakes today, and further downstream from the dams on the rivers.

The dams, because of their height, caused the water behind them to be cold, causing the tailwaters below the dams to be too cold for the native fish. The only fish that could survive the cold water were trout. Thus the hatcheries had to keep the cold-water portions of the river stocked with trout.

Since the rivers are not natural environments for the trout, they cannot reproduce sufficiently to maintain their population. This also is why there is a need for the continued operation of the hatcheries.

Without the hatcheries, the trout would soon die out, as would the tourist money that trout fishing brings into the area.

T.C. HOOD SR.

Little Rock

No silent submission

In a recent editorial, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writers describe homosexuality as “the love that just can’t shut up,” and “a real yawner.”

I’m sorry that the paper finds an oppressed minority’s pursuit of human rights and full citizenship so irksome. Rest assured, though, that gays find a few things bothersome, such as verbal and physical assault, employment discrimination, denial of health insurance, tax breaks and myriad marital benefits, and even the callous, belittling dismissal of their suffering and struggle for equality by heartless, bigoted editors.

Homosexuality is not the love that can’t shut up; it is the love that won’t shut up. Silent submission will not end discrimination, and the gay community will not be quieted until America is truly a nation of liberty and justice for all.

If you really want gays to shut up, I suggest you speak out against legalized bigotry and second-class citizenship rather than fostering homophobic prejudice. If you are unwilling to honor the fundamental American principle of legal equality for all citizens, then perhaps it is you who needs to shut up.

TERENCE F. JAMES

Batesville

A lot can happen . . .

I can’t believe it! The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has endorsed a presidential candidate six months before the election. And this is even before the first debate between the candidates is heard.

I would remind Paul Greenberg and his minions that a lot can happen in six months: The planet we live on was created in six days, the six-day war that changed the Middle East took the same number of days, the biblical flood was 40 days that determined what animals survived, and Kim Kardashian was married and divorced in less than three months.

Apparently, this paper has made up its mind on who to support come hell or high water. No wonder newspaper endorsements have little relevance today.

It is my understanding that Greenberg once was awarded the H.L. Mencken newspaper honor, and I think one of Mencken’s quotations is appropriate here as Greenberg tries to put the president out of work: “Nothing is so abject and pathetic as a politician who has lost his job, save only a retired stud-horse.”

MARSHALL WADE

Bella Vista

What’s to be believed

Re John Nelson’s letter about the presidential race: I just want to clarify something about Mitt Romney and all the rest of us Mormons that he intended to slam in his letter.

We believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and he did indeed translate the gold plates. In order to prove to the world that he wasn’t lying, the Lord allowed him to show these plates to 11 other people. Their testimony as to the truth of these things can be found at the beginning of any Book Of Mormon, which is available for anyone to read, if they so choose. It stands forever to prove to the world that the plates really existed.

It is okay if Nelson chooses not to believe it; that is his choice. However, before bashing someone else’s beliefs, remember the golden rule and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

MARY BARRETT

Bella Vista

A bet on wrong horse

I have never seen a gay horse. I have never seen a gay dog.

I’m just saying.

MARK SHREWSBURY

North Little Rock

Nothing makes sense

What is going on in this stupid world? Take television, for example. They have narrow-screen or widescreen or fancy words like aspect ratio. I’d like to meet the goon who came up with this. If you want a little screen, buy a little television. I bought a 40-inch screen but only have a 30-inch screen. Does this make any sense? Who can fix this mess?

More on television—weekends. News isn’t important. On one channel, there was a bunch of punk kids having a free-for-all. I found out it’s called hockey. Good news. Then, I thought Easter was over, but I saw people getting eggs out of holes—golf. The other local channel had a nature program, a bunch of monkeys swinging from hoops. They called it basketball. I’ll be glad when late August gets here. I can watch these gentlemen on the field kicking this pumpkin and patting each other on the rear.

Years ago they had to put a black person on so many programs. Then it was Mexicans. Now everything has gone gay, and I don’t mean happy. The president brought the rest of the world down when he backed gay marriage. What a disgrace. These people have their rights, but they should keep them in the closet and not flaunt their sinful ways on me.

When are we going to put Christ back in charge of this sorry old world? Surely there’s a couple of good people left to run for president and put America back in God’s hands!

NORBERT A. GUNDERMAN SR.

Solgohachia

Standing by his words

To all of my critics, so-called professing Christians, feminazis and allround smart-alecks—in general, the blind leading the blind—I stand by what I have written. Women began to get out of their places with the granting of the vote, and like Eve, walked out on their own. They got the vote, took men’s jobs, quit being female and they ought to repent and come back to God and follow his word.

The mess this country is in is also man’s fault. There are sissified men preachers who will not preach the oldtime gospel—all of the word instead of a weak social gospel. I know their weak church or organization would likely kick them out if they did.

Micah was a man of God who had to stand alone. God showed him the truth. Four hundred false prophets jumped up and down all in one accord against what Micah had said, but they turned out to be wrong. So it is with my critics.

Though I’m hated and ridiculed for my words, I stand by them. We all, men and women, will answer to a holy God someday.

DAVID SUMRELL

Springdale

Feedback

Shudders to think

It’s only May and apparently the incumbent president already feels that his re-election campaign is going down the toilet. In fact, so far down the toilet that he needs to reach out and befriend morally objectionable groups of American society in an effort to get more votes. Yes, it’s only May and I shudder to think who or what his sense of desperation will cause him to embrace in the next five months.

People say that you’ll need a clothespin for your nose when you vote for Mitt Romney, but better that than a clothespin, blinders and earplugs to vote for Barack Obama.

DON SHORT

Farmington

Can’t endorse them

I am canceling my paper again after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s political endorsements of Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton. Most of Cotton’s money is from out of state.

I do think, with one main paper in the state, it should not be so far-right-wing conservative that it loses all respect from its moderate readers. By endorsing Romney, in my opinion, the paper is giving up basic Christian values and saying it is all about money for the rich.

JEAN ANN COON

Springdale